Festivals

Organiser: SA Eesti Teatri Festival
Festival curator and executive manager: Hedi-Liis Toome

DRAAMA brings last season’s best Estonian theatre productions to Tartu.  The review festival first took place in 1996, and has become a true theatre celebration – DRAAMA is the largest annual theatre event in Estonia.

The Foundation Estonian Theatre Festival (Sihtasutus Eesti Teatri Festival) was established to organise events of the same name in 1996. Up until 2010, the festival brought the best productions of the previous two seasons to Tartu for a week. Starting from the 2004 festival KOMÖÖDIA, thematic festivals took place during DRAAMA gap years – in 2006, these were OmaDraama and in 2008,  UNT!, from 2009 onwards, a school theatre festival (Kooliteatrite festival) was organised in conjunction with the Estonian Amateur Theatre Association.

The format changed in 2010, and now, the festival takes place as an annual curator festival. The curators have been Madis Kolk (2010), Priit Raud (2011), Anu Lamp (2012), Iir Hermeliin (2013), Tõnu Õnnepalu (2014), Peeter Raudsepp and students of performing arts (2015), Ivar Põllu and Tartu Uus Teater (2016-2019).

The festival’s Artistic Council includes Liisi Aibel, Oliver Issak, Tiit Palu and Annika Üprus. The operations of the Foundation are guided by a five-member Supervisory Board (Raivo Põldmaa, Merle Mäesalu, Urmas Klaas, Viljar Pohhomov, Jaanus Rohumaa) and from December 2019, the Manager is Hedi-Liis Toome.